‘It’s okay, Celeste. Let me help you. It’s now. Not then.’
Celeste stopped shivering, nodded, put her face in her hands. ‘He came into my house,’ she said. ‘He came into my house and he killed Brian. He made me wait with him, waiting for Brian to come home so he could kill him in – in front of me.’ Her voice was low and guttural, as though it belonged to a shadow, not a person.
‘I’m so sorry.’
She gestured at Hurley’s body. ‘I got the gun… to make him stop. Just to stop. But I really killed him.’
Miles picked up the syringe. Hurley must have had the injection in his lab coat – a perfectly good place to hide one. Probably to sedate Celeste, bring her to the hospital for… he didn’t want to think. Hurley hadn’t gotten the whole dose in him but enough to make him numb and sick and to clog his head.
‘Celeste. Listen.’ His voice sounded thick in the air. ‘The man who hurt you, who killed your husband, he’s not here. Hurley was trying to kill me, you saved me, do you understand?’ He forced himself to speak slowly and calmly.
Now she nodded.
‘Will you give me the gun?’
She clutched the gun close to her T-shirt. ‘Never again, I swore. The cameras. The locks. Never again. Fort Celeste. I made this place Fort Celeste.’ She wasn’t listening to him.
‘We can’t stay here. Groote could be on his way. We have to go. Now.’
Celeste’s voice started to break. ‘I have a dead man on my floor. I want him… gone. I want you gone and my home back.’
‘I know you do. But here you’re a sitting target. Please, give me the gun.’
She handed him the pistol. Along her arms a web of paper-thin scars scrolled toward the elbows.
She saw him notice. ‘I don’t cut myself anymore,’ she said. ‘I’m better.’
‘That’s great, Celeste, that’s wonderful.’ He tucked the gun in the back of his pants, tried to think through the sedative haze.
‘What are you going to do now?’ she asked.
‘I’m going to get you safe, and then I’m going to get Nathan Ruiz out of that hospital.’
‘How?’
He went and searched in Hurley’s pocket, found an electronic passkey, a set of regular keys. ‘Walk in and take him.’
‘Who is he to you?’
‘The key to finding out the truth; but they still have him locked up.’
‘But this Groote’s at the hospital.’
‘Not necessarily. He’s out hunting for me. With the key and a gun I can walk in, get Nathan out.’
‘That’s absolutely crazy,’ she said. She shook her head. ‘And I can’t leave the house.’ She spoke as though he’d just informed her the world was flat.
‘You were brave enough to help me. You’re brave enough to walk through a door. It’s just a door. Walk the hell out of it.’
‘I can’t…’
‘I’ll hold your hand,’ Miles said. ‘You can sit on the floor of the car, keep your eyes closed, stay away from the windows. Pretend the world’s not there.’ He closed his hand around hers. ‘He will come here, he’ll kill you.’
She crawled to her purse, dug out a bottle of antidepressants, swallowed one dry. ‘I’ll try.’
He slowly got to his feet, bringing her to her feet as well. She stepped around Hurley’s body with a choked moan.
‘Don’t trust him, lady,’ Andy called from the corner. ‘Bad idea.’
Miles shot Andy the finger behind Celeste’s back and opened the door for her. He leaned out, scanned the street first. Empty. ‘It’s okay.’
Celeste cringed at the world beyond the open door.
‘There’s my car.’ He had found a set of spare keys and driven Blaine’s car to Celeste’s home. ‘Forty steps. I’ll walk with you, I’ll count.’
‘Just hold my hand,’ she said, and she closed her eyes, and made the first step.
The spring breeze rustled in the cottonwoods. Ten steps. She moaned. He kept his eyes fixed on the street, expecting a car to speed toward them and screech to a stop, carrying Groote, carrying death.
‘You’re doing great,’ he said.
‘Don’t talk to me… like I’m a toddler… learning how to ride a freaking bike.’ She started breathing in panicked hitches and he steadied his arm across her shoulders.
Twenty steps. The wind danced across her face and she flinched.
‘You’ve done this before,’ he tried, as a joke, not knowing what the hell else to say. Celeste kept her eyes clenched shut. ‘Been outside.’
‘I used to love the outdoors. Brian and I…’ and she swayed on her feet.
‘I’ve got you.’
She took another step. And another. Celeste made a low moan in her throat and walked faster, stumbling, her eyes clenched shut, and Miles guided her to Blaine’s car. He had left it unlocked and she stretched out on the backseat. She folded her arms over her eyes.
He gritted his teeth and slid the key into the car’s ignition. If she could get out of the house, he could drive the car again. At least the sedative shot made him less panicky; he just hoped he didn’t drive the car into the ditch.
He started the car. No boom. He steered out onto the mud road.
‘Where will you take me?’ she asked.
‘A friend’s house… well, he doesn’t know I’m hiding there. He’s out of town for a couple of days.’
‘Go to the hospital,’ she said. ‘I’ll wait in the car. Now. For Allison’s sake.’
He floored the accelerator, testing his reaction. The haze from the drug seemed to fade, overwhelmed by fear and adrenaline. He wheeled left onto the first street he passed, heading back toward the hilly rise leading to the hospital, praying that Groote was hunting him in the night, far away from Sangriaville.
THIRTY-ONE
Miles drove past a set of quiet homes, past empty lots, past the Sangre de Cristo Hospital, to Canyon Road’s dead end: an Audubon Society complex. He U-turned at the Audubon gate and headed back down the road toward the hospital. He went past the clinic, giving it a curious scouting, wondering if eyes in the building were watching him. There was no security that suggested this facility housed anyone dangerous – no wire, only a high adobe-wall enclosure, no guard posted.
‘Waiting for that next chess move,’ Andy said. ‘Show me the brilliance.’
He wanted to tell Andy to shut up, but he didn’t want Celeste to hear him. He U-turned again, wheeled Blaine’s car into the hospital’s parking lot, parked near the back.
‘How will you find him inside?’ she asked.
‘Nathan mentioned the top floor when I saw him at Allison’s,’ he said. ‘So I’m going straight to the top. Can you drive?’
‘Oh, sure,’ she said. ‘Driving’s easy compared with shooting.’
‘If you’re approached – security guards, anyone – run. Go straight to the police, or a friend’s house. Don’t wait for me.’
‘Miles,’ she said, ‘if Allison’s giving me Frost, I think it works. I should be in a fetal position right now. I killed a man. I left the house. But I’m coping.’ Nevertheless her voice shook and she swallowed, struggling to steady it. ‘Maybe it’s Frost. Hurley acted surprised when I told him she’d given me new pills.’
‘Or you’re just strong,’ he said. She blinked at him. ‘I’ll be back as quickly as I can. Can you bear to sit in the front, keep the engine running?’
She nodded. She climbed over the seat, squirmed low in the passenger seat.
